


Orange and Blue

by Saucery



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Color Theory, Compatibility, Developing Relationship, Drama, Essays, Jeff Davis is a Gift, Johannes Itten, M/M, Meta, Metaphors, Psychoanalysis, Romance, Shipping, Slash, Slow Build, Subtext, Why Ship Them
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-25
Updated: 2012-08-25
Packaged: 2017-11-12 20:26:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,124
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/495325
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Saucery/pseuds/Saucery
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An exploration of Derek and Stiles as complementary colors, using Johannes Itten's color theory.</p><p>OR, YET ANOTHER NERDY SHIP MANIFESTO.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Orange and Blue

* * *

  


So, I came across this lovely fanvid (by  **paquim** ) today:

And it reminded me of all that lovely meta about the colors orange and blue that was going around the fandom, a couple weeks ago. You know, about how Stiles trying to tell Lydia about two colors not  _apparently_  going together at first but actually being perfect for each other was a  _deliberate pro-Sterek choice_ , on the behalf of the art department (and, by extension, Jeff Davis), given that those were the exact same colors Derek tried out  _in Stiles’s bedroom_ , the colors  _on Stiles’s shirt_ , that were, for a brief period of time,  _against Derek’s skin_. (And people say we’re imagining the gayness. WE’RE NOT, OKAY.)

It was also the only time in canon that Derek ever really wore colors, rather than his usual funereal leather-and-denim combo of midnight-on-black. Because god forbid that angsty supernatural beings dress up cheerily! (Unless their future boyfriends are bullying them into trying on colorful T-shirts in order to bribe understandably appreciative hacker-buddies!)

If colors mirror emotions and bright colors equal bright emotions, then that time was also the only time in canon that Derek’s _emotions_  were bright. Different from his usual tormented doom-and-gloom, wracked with loss and self-hatred and soul-deep, paralyzing guilt. And  _fear_. So much fear. Fear of being hurt, again. Fear of being betrayed. Fear of inadvertently betraying  _others_ , the way he’d unknowingly betrayed his pack (to Kate). All very dark emotions. Reflected in the dark colors of his clothing. His car. His home. His very  _mien_ , down to the ever-darkening stormcloud of his perpetually-lowered brow.

Only in Stiles’s presence did the colors surrounding (and _signifying_ ) Derek’s internal state brighten up. Prefaced, significantly, by a literal (and metaphorical) stripping. A baring of psychological (as well as physical) skin. All of a sudden, Derek wasn’t just pitch-black shadows and haunted, midnight blues. He became a clashing combination of orange-and-blue, desire and wistfulness, heat and coolness, youth and the (necessarily tempering) hand of experience. Instinct and logic. Eagerness and doubt. Happiness and sadness. Derek was  _at odds_  with himself, because of his own desire for another person, because of this startling onset of a persistent warmth, a mostly-forgotten warmth, from those days when he was still able to  _feel_.

A crack in the long-dark ice.

The cracking open of his very  _heart_.

All in a very playful scene, but oh, the things that scene  _implies_.

Not just about Derek’s internal conflict, but that  _Stiles_  is the orange in Derek’s otherwise blue life. Stiles is the new color in a spectrum dulled by grief. Stiles is the bright, light, effervescent color that, at first glance, doesn’t seem to suit Derek’s darkness, at all. And yet, they are perfect for each other. Just as Stiles was trying to explain to Lydia, in that astonishingly symmetrical bit of dialogue, albeit troublingly misplaced (Lydia isn’t the one for him; her colors match with someone else’s). In both of these crucial scenes (with Danny in Stiles’s room and with Lydia at the skating rink), Derek and Stiles are confirmed as each other’s complementaries.

Jeff Davis and the show’s creators  _deliberately created_  this fearful symmetry, this complementary combination of colors, this ongoing theme of orange-and-blue. It wasn’t an accident that Derek wore the very colors that, to Stiles, embody an unexpected-but-perfect combination. It wasn’t an accident, at all.

As the Slash Dragon would say: IT WAS DESTINY. TWO SIDES OF THE SAME COIN, WHAT WHAT. 

Don’t believe me? Here, have a couple of passages from Johannes Itten, the godfather of color theory, whom the artists and designers of  _Teen Wolf_  are guaranteed to have studied. (YES, COLOR THEORY. I AM A NERD OF SO MANY DISCIPLINES, YOU DO NOT EVEN WANT TO KNOW. I PREFER TO CALL MYSELF A RENAISSANCE FAN, BUT YOU COULD ALSO JUST CALL ME A SUPER-NERD. OKAY? OKAY.)

Pay particular attention to the bolded bits! For the purpose of this exercise, orange = Stiles and Derek = blue. LET’S GO!

> The Impressionists noticed that the cold, transparent blue of the sky and atmosphere was everywhere in contrast, as a shadow color, with the warm tones of sunlight. The **enchantment**  of Monet’s, Pissarro’s and Renoir’s paintings  **is often achieved by the cunning play of modulations of cold and warm colors**.
> 
> We call two colors complementary if their pigments,  **mixed together** , yield a  **neutral**  gray-black. Physically, light of two complimentary colors, mixed together, will yield white.
> 
> Two such colors make  **a strange pair**. They are  **opposite** , they  **require each other**. They  **incite each other**  to **maximum vividness when adjacent** ; and they annihilate each other, to gray-black, when mixed - like  **fire and water**.
> 
> There is always  **but one color complementary to a given color**. In the color circle…  **complementary colors are diametrically opposite each other**. 
> 
> Examples of complementary pairs are:
> 
>   * yellow, violet
>   * **blue, orange**
>   * red, green
> 

> 
> […]
> 
> Both the phenomenon of afterimage and the effects of simultaneity illustrate the remarkable physiological fact, as yet unexplained, that  **the eye requires any given color to be balanced by the complementary** , and will spontaneously generate the latter if it is not present. This principle is of great importance in all practical work with color. In the section on concord of colors, we stated that  **the rule of complementaries is the basis of harmonious design because its observance establishes a precise equilibrium in the eye**.
> 
> […]
> 
> Each complimentary pair has its own peculiarities.
> 
> Thus, yellow/violet represents not only complementary contrast but also an extreme light-dark contrast.
> 
> Red- **orange/blue** -green  **is a complementary pair** , and at the same time  **the extreme of cold-warm contrast**.
> 
> Red and green are complementary, and the two saturated colors have the same brilliance.
> 
> **SOURCE:** _The Elements of Color_  by Johannes Itten; trans. Ernst van Hagen; John Wiley & Sons, Canada; 2001; pp. 48-49.

Now, isn’t that neat?

Complementary colors are what shipping is all  _about_. In essence, the eye of the  ~~rabid fan~~  viewer seeks to complete the picture, and instinctively seeks out two ‘colors’ (people) that complement each other. The hot with the cold. The Kirk with the Spock. The Lizzy with the Mr. Darcy. The Stiles with the Derek.

There is absolutely no major romantic pairing, in canon or fanon, that does not follow this rule. There is  _always_  a light/dark or warm/cold contrast. The two characters in any pairing are always, irrevocably,  _complementary colors_. (For further on this concept, using chemistry metaphors instead of color metaphors, see my equally zany essay,  _[Covalency and Affinity: An Essay on Pairing Popularity](414770)_. Yes, chemistry. RENAISSANCE FAN, LADIES AND GENTS.)

Ahem. So the thing is, Stiles and Derek. Complement each other. And Jeff is (I’m just gonna quote Itten, here), enchanting us with “the cunning play of modulations of cold and warm colors,” with Derek’s solitary torment and Stiles’s effusive, affectionate personality. Jeff’s doing it  _deliberately_. Ain’t no lie. He said so himself, in [this interview](http://www.eonline.com/news/338994/teen-wolf-boss-talks-stiles-and-derek-s-popularity-shipping-and-more), when he admitted to capitalizing on the chemistry between the two characters ( _and_  the actors), as well as in [this interview](http://collider.com/jeff-davis-teen-wolf-season-2-interview/172633/), when he put Stiles and Derek at the top of his list of “great pairings”.

Wanna bet the choice of colors was an accident,  _now_? Yeah, no. I wouldn’t bet on it, either.

When “mixed together,” Stiles and Derek balance each other out, achieving a “neutral” shade. Derek becomes more emotional and expressive; Stiles becomes more focused and driven. They borrow from each other. Swap traits. Annihilate each other’s most negative traits. Achieve a medium. (Again, you oughta read my [covalency](414770) essay for more on how this works.) In terms of heading up a pack of werewolves, they’re the perfect mates. They create a “concord,” a “harmonious design,” a “precise equilibrium”. They keep things together. They keep things afloat. (Well, they’ve already kept  _each other_  afloat. Literally. Heh.)

They’re a “strange pair,” but they are, undeniably, a  _pair_. A strange pair. Or, as romantics would put it, an odd couple.

They’re an “extreme of cold-warm contrast,” which is why you need to turn  _both_  of them on,  _together_ , to get your water at just the right temperature. They’re like the two knobs in a shower. The hot and the cold. Unless you plan to freeze your balls off or scald yourself, your only real option is to use both of them. At once. That’s why Jeff Davis keeps throwing them together, by the way. Combining them is the only way to effectively deal with them. Because they’re the only ones that can effectively deal with  _each other_.

They “require each other,” as they have repeatedly proven by saving each other’s lives, and by being  _there_  to save each other’s lives, even when no one else was.

They “incite each other” to “maximum vividness,” too. They’re never more lively (even  _Stiles_!) than when they’re snarking with each other or annoying the heck out of each other or shoving each other against surfaces or getting all up in each other’s personal space. (Personal space? What personal space? /Castiel) They incite each other so much that, if they were groups of people instead of two individuals, someone might have to read ‘em the riot act. You know, for inciting riots. Of sexual tension. Hot _damn_.

They’re “opposite,” all right. Man, are they ever. But opposites attract, and so do they.

They’re “fire and water,” which is why they balance each other and, in emergencies, act as a sort of control for each other. They can help each other, but if they were enemies, they  _could_ annihilate each other. That ability to do each other harm is precisely why they can do each other  _good_  - because they can  _get_ to each other on that visceral level, gut-deep, blood-dark.

As they borrow from each other and exchange character traits, they become capable of turning into the opposite element. Exchanging coolness for warmth, and warmth for coolness. That’s how the balancing occurs.

The water of Stiles’s natural empathy can quench the fire of Derek’s never-ending thirst, his never-ending  _pain_ , his (now-ended) loneliness. Derek’s depth and nourishing heat can give Stiles the grounding he needs to truly find himself, to send his roots out into that rich, loamy soil that so cherishes and protects its secrets. Of which Stiles will  _also_  be one, if he lets himself. Because, once you’ve planted yourself in the dark, lava-warmed, subterranean cavern of Derek Hale’s heart? That’s  _it_ , man. You’ve found your home. Your place of stillness. Your place to let go of everything else, and just  _be_.

And there is only ever “one color complementary to a given color,” which means there’s only one fated match for Derek, in the show, and that’s Stiles. And vice-versa. There  _is_  no one else. The rest have all been paired up with their own complementary colors, the ones that balance them out.

I’d say that the red/green pair is Lydia/Jackson, not least because of Jackson’s greenish scales and Lydia’s reddish-blonde hair and red, red mouth! They’re two very intense characters, absolutist in their natures and in their egos, “two saturated colors that have the same brilliance”. Sure, they’re both also riddled with self-doubt, but that’s what makes them complementary and capable of understanding one another, instead of always being at loggerheads.

The yellow/violet pair is obviously Scott/Allison, and not just because of Scott’s golden-yellow eyes and Allison’s violet-brown ones! (Dear god, don’t let me get distracted by the fact that Stiles’s eyes appear orange under direct light, and that Derek’s are blue! OH, WAIT! TOO LATE! Dang.) Uh, anyway,  _like I was saying_ , Scott and Allison provide the show’s central moral conflict, the “extreme light-dark contrast,” with Scott [always going out of his way to save people](http://saucefactory.tumblr.com/post/29894144300/scott-mccall-only-cares-about-lacrosse-and-sex) (like Isaac, who he didn’t even  _know_ , at first!), whereas Allison, brainwashed by her bizarre upbringing and by Grandpa Psychopath, is ready to reduce perceived enemies into literal chopped liver.

This conflict is also what enriches their romance, however, by enabling Allison to transform herself whenever she’s around Scott and be more compassionate and connected to her emotions, even as she provides Scott with the impetus he needs to be downright _hardcore_  in the protection of the one he loves, and more than capable of engaging in necessary violence. (Something that would otherwise be uncharacteristic for him, since he is, essentially, a gentle soul.) Like Stiles and Derek, they complement each other. Achieve a “harmonious,” “neutral” balance that gives them both strength, security and peace of heart.

And that’s color theory applied to  _Teen Wolf_ , specifically, to its romantic relationships.

Wasn’t that fun? Yes. Yes, it was.

In essence: Some colors don’t seem to go well together, at first glance, but prove to be perfect for each other, later on. Because they’re complementary colors.

In  _other_  words:

Happy shipping!


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